Waste Disposal

It’s becoming clear to me that waste disposal is a major issue in Haiti. The roads are littered with discarded plastic, metal, and organic waste. Besides causing an eyesore, sharp pieces of debris pose serious hazards to motorists and pedestrians. In some heavily populated areas, vast piles of garbage are burned alongside the road. The chemicals emitted by burning or decomposing wastes can taint drinking water, soil and air leading to disease.

In the short time I have been here in Haiti, I have made countless observations of people (in the city and the country) simply drop an empty water bottle on the ground or leave a pile of fruit peels in a busy walkway.

I have also seen some astonishing illustrations of reuse and conservation that we could learn from in the US. I observed a man using makeshift tools to remake coils in a speaker at the church. Everywhere I go, I pass people carrying old buckets and jugs filled with water, cooking oil, gasoline, etc. Ingenious Haitians use scraps of metal to make rather impressive (though perhaps unsightly) repairs to vehicles. Glass soda bottles are always returned to the soda company for reuse.

Wherever we work, we need to affect knowledge and culture regarding reuse and recycling. It is vital for sustained health of a community. I know a fair bit about composting, but I don’t quite know how to deal with synthetic waste. I have heard of recycling programs in Haiti. We’ll have to do some research…